How to child-proof your iPhone and iPad

Here at Mend my iPhone York, we’re often getting phone calls from customers who have damaged iPhones. One common cause of the damage: Kids. iPhones and iPads are the perfect device for keeping kids amused, whether it’s while you’re waiting for your food in a restaurant or because you can’t stand another episode of Caillou on Netflix.
Apps for kids are a massive industry, from preschool games, through common sight word spelling games all the way to GCSE revision apps. Chances are at some point you will be handing over your phone or pad to your offspring – but if you do, you want to make sure it comes back in the same state you left it. Here’s how.

Protecting your account

So, you’ll probably have heard the stories where a kid used their parents iPhone and ran up thousands of pounds of debt on their iTunes account? That’s the sort of thing you need to prevent happening if you’re handing your phone over to your own (or someone else’s) offspring. You may also have apps with sensitive data, things you don’t want your child to accidentally get into. Here are a few options for controlling who gets to do what on your phone.

Guided Access

This setting was intended to help workers keep focused on their phones. It restricts access on your phone to a single app – and that’s perfect for letting your kid play Angry Birds while you’re in the doctor’s waiting room. You’ll find guided access under Settings – General – Accessibility – Guided Access. There you can turn it on or off, and change the settings. A really useful one is the timer, so if you want to limit screen time, that’s one way to do it (and your phone can give a verbal reminder to save you being yelled at).
A quick and easy way to set this up is to open the app that you want your kids to use, then triple click the home button to get into settings and turn on guided access.

Restrict in-app purchases

Restrictions will help you avoid accidental purchases, or your kids running up a bill buying extra turns on Candy Crush. Go to Settings – General – Restrictions and enable restrictions. You’ll be asked to set a passcode; choose a different one from your unlock code which, let’s face it, your toddler has probably already memorised.

Once you’ve done that, you have a few options. You can simply turn off in-app purchases completely (but then you can’t buy extra turns in Candy Crush); belt and braces is to turn off iTunes store, iBooks store, apps and in-app purchases. You can also change your settings to require a password for every download.
You might also have seen some apps offering passcode protection on a per-app basis. These aren’t Apple features, and some require your phone to be jail-broken in order to install. That’s a process where the restrictions Apple place on iOS are removed, allowing apps to do things to your phone they wouldn’t usually be able to do. Buyer, beware.

Protecting your child

You probably have a firewall with parental restrictions set up at home, but when you’re out and about using other people’s wifi or your mobile data allowance, it could be different. The good news is that there are settings on your iPhone that will help you mimic your firewall and protect your children from some of the less savoury content on the internet.

Restricting Access

Back into settings again, then general – restrictions. If you haven’t already enabled them, do that now. If you scroll down to ‘allowed content’ you can choose things like the ratings of any videos that play we well as the opening of apps like Facebook and Twitter. It won’t turn them off, you’ll just need to use your restrictions passcode to lift them.
There are also several parental control apps that manage restrictions to sites, and monitor screen time if you want to do that.

Protecting your phone

Kids drop things. Even things that they want to be very careful with. I’m sure your kids are perfect little angels, but my kids have even been known to throw things when they’re upset. Things like iPhones. Although the screens are surprisingly robust, they do break (don’t worry if they do, we can fix them) but it might be worth investing in some protection if your children use your phone or iPad a lot.

Screen Protection

Use something like Tech Armour’s Ballistic Screen Protector to give the phone a fighting chance.
Waterproofing The submariner by Kona is waterproof up to 100 feet. It won’t just protect your phone if it accidentally falls in the bath, it will let you take your phone into the pool or underwater to take pictures.

Shockproof cases

The OtterBox defender comes in a whole range of colours and is reasonably priced, it comes with an in-built screen protector and a stand so you can use it for Facetime or watching videos.
There are many more different cases, it’s worth thinking about when and where you and your kids use your iPhone or iPad so you can make sure that you’ve got the right type of protection.
One last tip

Find my iPhone

I have a friend whose toddler tossed their phone out of the buggy on the way to the shops; the only way they were reunited was using that app.

That’s our brief guide to kid-proofing your iPhone or iPad. We hope it helps. If all else fails and your iPhone or iPad do take damage, give us a call on 0330 999 2949. Don’t worry, you won’t be the first.

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Why you should mend your iPhone rather than upgrade

Whoops! You’ve dropped your iPhone, again, and the screen is cracked. Oh well, you’d been eyeing the shiny new model anyway so it’s the perfect time to upgrade. Just throw the old one in the drawer and forget about it, right? Many people do: that’s why there are now more mobile phones than people.
As the name of this website might suggest, we’re a bit biased on this topic, but here’s why we think you should mend your iPhone rather than (or as well as ) taking that upgrade:

Financials

When you upgrade you get tied into an expensive contract. The phone companies have to do that, they have to recover the cost of the handset along with the cost of your calls, texts and data over the term. If your current phone has already lasted through the original contract you now have the chance to unlock your phone and shop around for a deal that will offer you better value for money.
When you take out a contract, you don’t usually have to pay (up front) for the phone itself, so it can be easy to forget that they’re worth hundreds of pounds. The re-sale value on iPhones is pretty good and even damaged phones are sought after, but you’ll get the best return on your investment if you mend your iPhone before you sell.

New isn’t always better

Phone companies, and Apple in particular like to market towards early adopters. They know that there is a huge appetite for their latest upgrade, and they are trying to bypass your common sense and get you to want something you don’t necessarily need. If the only problem with your current phone is a cracked screen, a sticky home button or a worn out battery then you can fix those with a simple repair and wait and see if there are any problems with the new model before you invest (iPhone 4 antenna, anyone?)

It’s Greener

Sticking your phone in a drawer isn’t the environmentally responsible thing to do. iPhones contain precious metals and plastics that can be recycled, if the phone really has come to the end of its life. Remember the old adage, ‘Reduce, reuse, recycle’. Reduce means only upgrading if you really need to, and if you must then make sure your iPhone gets reused, until it really is obsolete and needs to go to the great Apple Store in the sky. Just don’t let it go to the landfill, please.
Repair may be cheaper and easier than you think
You may have heard horror stories about how much iPhones cost to repair, or have a friend of a friend who had a bad experience with a shop or market stall who did more harm than good when fixing their phone. If you have concerns about finding a repairer, ask around. Word of mouth is a great way to choose someone to mend your iPhone.

Here at Mend my iPhone York, our prices are kept up to date, right here on our website. We will come to your home or office, (or you can meet us at one of our drop-ins) and we will carry out the repair in front of you. We don’t leave unless you’re happy – you don’t have to take our word for it, look at the reviews our customers have left on our Facebook page.

Pass it on

A lot of people pass their phone on when they upgrade. Adults pass their handsets to their kids (an heirloom iPhone!) or onto their own parents to bring the older generation into the world of smart phones. Even if your young ‘uns are too little to take a phone out of the house, they can still use the handset as a mini-mini-iPad and play games or listen to music.

That’s great but my phone is water damaged, you can’t repair that!

Actually, we can. It’s one of our specialities. Even iPhone that other repairers wouldn’t touch with a barge pole, we’d gladly take a look. Even if we can’t save the phone, we may be able to save your data and the memories on your photo stream? Priceless.

Mending iPhones is what we do – we want you to mend your iPhone. It’s what we’re good at it, and for all the reasons we’ve stated above we think it’s the right choice. So, if you’re in York (or thereabouts) then give us a call on 0330 999 2949 and we’ll do what we do best: Mend your iPhone.